BillyRadd Music

Saturday, March 12, 2011

The Alohas Have It

The Sound of Mela

Many thanks to those who voted in my "Name the Kala U Bass" questionaire which ended today. The beautiful Hawaiian name Mela (which means Song) won with 50% of the votes. This is doubly great because that was my favored choice as well. BTW, Kani, meaning Sound, came in a close second so I may have to call it Song Sound, which is somewhat appropriate for such a classy little music maker.

In other music news, I discovered yesterday, while reading a bass forum on the net about Ampeg B12N fliptop amplifiers, that the vintage boomer of that very type my parents gave me for my 16th birthday in 1963, is a no-kidding electrocution waiting to happen. It seems that, since it was manufactured way back when grounded outlets were not the norm that they are today, the vintage two-pronged power chord my B12N sports has no way of grounding the power that might surge through the unsuspecting player if he, she, or me were to touch a microphone or any AC powered device plugged into a different amplifier.

That would be a rude awakening indeed, and maybe The Big Kahuna of All Rude Awakenings..

So, today I loaded my beloved B12N into Big Red, the Jeep, and hauled it off to Asheville's Guitar Mama Store for a sorely needed upgrade to a grounded power plug. Good thinking, don't you think?

When I play bass, I want the sparks to fly, but not from my ears.

2 comments:

  1. I remember more than once touching a microphone when something wasn't plugged in correctly and getting a nasty dose of wattage to the lips! Ooooh. Bare feet didn't work well either!

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  2. Thanks for the comment, Bob. Shockingly sad but true. I've heard of people actually dying from such a mishap. I'd prefer a more sedate manner of shuffling this mortal coil than a blue flash and a puff of smoke.

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